Another Side of the Legend
by Saffire345
Summary: Tael, Link's father, is one of the knights given the duty to protect the seven sages. Based on the prologue to 'A Link to the Past'.


**Another Side of the Legend**

A look into the mind and perspective of one of the many forgotten pieces of the legend.

(Based on Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, all rights including the game title, story, characters, and scenes belong to Nintendo and other respective owners. To sum it up, the idea of _this_ story belongs to me, but the settings, characters (from the game), etc., do not. But the original characters do belong to me... If you've visited enough of these fanfics, I think ya get the idea. ;) )

-I-

Two knights, sitting proudly upon their steeds, facing each other over a distance spanning the field of honor. The two horses ignorant of their riders' purposes, snorting impatiently for their horse stalls and feed troughs. Each knight wields a long iron lance, sitting in the full regalia of their armor, the two tensely eyeing each other, and appear to be waiting for something. The wind begins to pick up, the sound of flapping can be heard from a source just out of sight. All but the wind is still, when suddenly one of the two knights slams down the visor of his red helmet, lowers his lance steadily towards his opponent and charges his horse towards the other knight. Seconds later the other knight matches suit, slamming the visor of his shimmering green helmet down to shield his eyes as he lowers his heavy lance and kicks the horse fiercely to charge towards its counterpart.

For a moment stretched into ages, the two horses rush toward each other, toward the center of the field. Their metal clad riders hunched, each clutching their weapon tightly as they prepare themselves for the impact of the imminent and inevitable collision. The horses merely running as ordered from the memory of pain flogged into them to keep them obedient, but somehow they still have their pride as they each gallop at full stride, almost resembling the two knights but in a more natural sense. As the two rivals finally meet in the center of the field, the red knight attempts to slam his lance into the green knight's chest, only to fail as the green clad man daringly leans to the side of his saddle, hanging onto the reigns for balance. But instead of leaving it as a mere dodge, the green knight quickly regains his position on the saddle and swiftly brings his lance about with both hands and slams it into the back of his opponent.

Caught completely off guard, the red knight flies off his saddle, his indifferent horse merely slowing down to stop and graze upon the grass without so much as a glance back. The knight clad in green armor, triumphant, turns his horse about and moves swiftly towards the pile of red armor on the ground. A sound resembling that of bubbling water can be heard building up, but the green one seems to be tuning it out as he leaps from his horse while extending a hand towards the red one and... helps the man up. "You did well." comes a voice from behind the green visor. "Did well? I'd win if you didn't come up with some new fancy move every tournament!" "Hah, if that's true then your next victory is very far off!" The cheering of the bubbling crowd soon catches the attention of the two knights as they turn to the stands and wave gauntleted hands as the thrilled audience cheers. The wind picks up again, and the banners marked with the symbol of Hyrule begin to flap wildly again, as if adding their own praise to that of the crowd.

Two young boys quickly ran out onto the field to retrieve the horses and return them to their stalls, probably the squires of the two knights who'd just competed against each other in the tournament. As well, the two knights returned to the shade of the interior of the arena walls. The green knight promptly removed his helmet, glad to get out of the glaring sun, running a still gloved hand through his brown hair, cut in a uniform style. "An excellent display Tael, it's a shame you're leaving the ranks." Tael, still equipped in his green, and annoyingly hot armor, instantly smiled as he recognized the voice as that of his superior officer and captain. "Thank you, Sir, and I'm afraid that my leaving His Majesty's forces is inevitable." "Huh, I'm still convinced that Melissa is capable of raising that boy of yours on her own." Tael just smiled, "You should know by now that my family has a history of its males being a hand-full." The captain just laughed, a cheerful and hardy sound, "You've got that right, you were just a lad yourself when you signed up and you were almost too much for even me! I suppose you really are needed at home. By the way, what name did you and Melissa decide on?"

Tael gave a proud smile, "Link." The captain just gave a knowing smile as he nodded, he knew about Tael's family and its tradition that every boy born into the family who was named Link had grown to do great things that were never forgotten in Hyrule. "What about your brother, couldn't he have done the same?" It was true, Tael would trust his brother with his life, they were the epitome of the way brothers should be. "It wouldn't feel right, not being there for my own son." The captain nodded again, but his false look of content gave way to his worry.

"Sir?"

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid... You aren't going to be leaving our ranks..." An instant look of both confusion and anger took over his face. "What? What do you mean? I have to go!" The captain just shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry, but let me explain. Surely you've heard of those rumors about a secret realm where some omniscient and omni-powerful treasure is hidden?" "Yeah, what about it?" "Well, people are starting to get hostile with each other over it, at least, the ones currently searching for it. The problem is, there's no searching for it anymore, they _found_ it." Eyes widening, Tael kept his response short, "What?!" "Yes. There are reports from all over Hyrule about odd portals of glowing blue water in which people disappear and never return. Of course, there's no proof that these portals actually lead to the same golden land spoken of in the rumor, but nonetheless His Majesty wants these portals sealed."

Taken aback, Tael's mind raced with questions, though they all revolved around, "But what does that have to do with the ranks?" Tael's captain rose up his hand to prevent any further questions, "Because His Majesty wants these portals sealed, as I said. He's ordering seven wise men to seal up these portals. As you can imagine, there are many who still wish to go through the portals to find the alleged power, and they'd do anything to stop the sages from locking the portals up. _That's_ where His Majesty's forces come in. We're being assigned to protect the seven sages as they do this in order to keep anything from happening, since I'm sure you can imagine how many people wouldn't want the door way to be locked before they have a chance to get through."

Tael sighed, pulling off his green gauntlets to run a hand through his hair. "I suppose Makar's going to have to help Melissa after all... But I'm sure gonna hate having to tell her this..."


End file.
